1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of data networking. More particularly, the invention relates to an improved data communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Internet users today may communicate using a variety of different client applications including real-time messaging applications (e.g., instant messaging or “chat” applications) and real-time, two-way video applications. For example, certain client applications (such as, for example, the “Qik” client developed by Qik, Inc.), allow users to participate in two-way live video chat over 3G and 4G cellular phone networks.
FIGS. 1a-b illustrate an exemplary configuration in which two mobile devices 101-102 participate in a two-way video chat. FIG. 1a illustrates control/signaling data routing used to establish a two-way video connection and FIG. 1b illustrates the media data (i.e., the actual video streams) being transmitted between the two mobile devices 101-102. The control/signaling is typically carried using a transmission control protocol (TCP) or user datagram protocol (UDP) network transport and the media data is typically carried using a UDP network transport.
As illustrated, the path taken by both the control/signaling and media data includes a phone subnetwork 105 which may be a standard wireless cellular network (e.g., such as a 3G or 4G network). The phone subnetwork 105 is connected to a service sub-network 115 via a router 110. The service subnetwork is a data network used to support mobile data traffic and route the data traffic over the Internet 125 via an external firewall 120. The phone subnetwork 105 and service subnetwork 115 are maintained by a wireless service provider such as T-Mobile™, AT&T™, or Verizon™.
Currently, to enable real-time video conversations between the mobile devices 101-102, each of the mobile devices must be connected over the Internet 125 to a common set of streaming servers 150. Each mobile device 101-102 opens its own UDP datagram socket to the streaming servers 105 and the streaming servers then route the datagrams containing the video content over the appropriate datagram sockets. For example, the streaming servers 150 route video received from mobile device 101 over mobile device 102's datagram socket connection and vice versa.
One drawback of this configuration is that because each mobile device 101-102 must connect to a streaming server over the Internet 125, significant latency may be introduced. Consequently, a more efficient way to route video between the mobile devices 101-102 would be desirable.